BRIEFLY : NORMAN CONTENDS IN HERITAGE.

Just days after his Masters cave-in, Greg Norman pulled his psyche and his golf game together to land in contention Thursday in the MCI Heritage Classic at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Norman, who gave away a six-stroke lead and the green jacket to Nick Faldo at Augusta National last Sunday, finished with a 69 Thursday. He was just three back of the four leaders - Ken Green, Guy Boros, Jim Furyk and Loren Roberts.

``It was important to have a good, solid round today, especially with what happened the week before,'' said Norman, who won the Heritage in 1988.

Hale Irwin went into the water twice to save pars and worked his way around the windswept Champion Course at 6-under-par 66 for the first-round lead in his first PGA Seniors' Championship at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Washington State golf coach Christine Burkhart will resign at the end of the season to teach golf full time in Western Washington, Cougars athletic director Rick Dickson said.

FOOTBALL A judge ruled that the legal tussle over the Seattle Seahawks' attempted move to Southern California will be heard in Seattle and not moved across the Cascade mountains to Ellensburg.

The Seahawks had argued that moving the trial to a more neutral forum was warranted because of unrelenting publicity against team owner Ken Behring. They also said King County filed the lawsuit as a ``pre-emptive strike'' during negotiations to settle differences between the sides.

``This court finds neither of these arguments to be founded in fact or law,'' King County Superior Court Judge Jim Bates ruled.

Free-agent offensive lineman Steve Wallace signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, the club announced.

TENNIS This year's Wimbledon singles champions will collect extra prize money at the world's premier grass-court tournament. The men's titlist will receive $592,675, $41,525 more than last year; the women's winner will take home $533,030, up by $37,750.

BASKETBALL Mike Dunleavy, completing a fourth losing season as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, will be fired after the season, a Milwaukee television station reported. ``It's not true. I'm still the coach. I'm still here,'' Dunleavy said.

ETC. Edward J. Keating, a sports agent whose clients over the years included Arnold Palmer, Dick Butkus and Dennis Eckersley, died of cancer at his suburban Cleveland home. He was 59. . . .

Former world road-cycling champion Lance Armstrong said he will skip next month's U.S. Olympic trials and concentrate on the World Cup series to qualify for the Summer Games in Atlanta. . . .

Learning-disabled students will have a better chance to meet freshmen academic requirements under two pieces of legislation approved by the NCAA Council.

One of the proposals would eliminate the rule that requires certification that a high school prospect has made specific academic achievements in order to take an early official visit to a school that's recruiting him. This would apply to all athletes. The other would enable learning-disabled students to apply high school classes taken in the summer after they graduate toward their core course requirements. . . .